Neald... - Edit 1
Before modification by Shannow at 15/12/2009 12:19:38 PM
personally i'm not disagreeing with you exactly. i definitely believe that ultimately your potential is your gateway size. just can't remember anybody's growing.
If they do grow i think it'd be in increments of gateway opening. Rand made six Deathgates at a time. I theorized that if he was making as many as many as possible, which the circumstances suggest, then his total power must be divisible by seven. Six thresholds. Seven fits in with the old twenty-one levels statement too.
If that's true then every time a channeler passed a gateway strength level threshold their gateway size would increase to the next closest level to their final potential. Say your potential was 43 you would be able to open a 29 gateway as soon as you had the 14 strength necessary to open one. and once you were stronger than 29 you'd be able to open the 43 size your potential suggested.
If they do grow i think it'd be in increments of gateway opening. Rand made six Deathgates at a time. I theorized that if he was making as many as many as possible, which the circumstances suggest, then his total power must be divisible by seven. Six thresholds. Seven fits in with the old twenty-one levels statement too.
If that's true then every time a channeler passed a gateway strength level threshold their gateway size would increase to the next closest level to their final potential. Say your potential was 43 you would be able to open a 29 gateway as soon as you had the 14 strength necessary to open one. and once you were stronger than 29 you'd be able to open the 43 size your potential suggested.
Perrin notes in CoT that Neald's gateways are getting larger than they were back in CoS. He doesn't have to dismount anymore to ride through them.
As for your thresholds - I'm not sure what you base the seven categories on. Why must gateways increase in set increments? Why not grow in the same way that your strength grows? In uneven bursts for men, and gradually for women.
As for Rand being able to weave 6 gateways - that merely means that he has more than six times the amount of strength needed to weave one gateway. Same for Logain.
The minimum level of strength to weave a gateway is very low for men - even Soldier Ashaman can weave gateways large enough for a man to pass through.
But that's where Asmodean's quote comes in - just because Rand has enough strength to weave 6 gateways at once does not mean that he can weave one gateway six times as large as his usual maximum. His maximum size is set by his full potential. It doesn't matter how much he actually channelers above the minimum amount of Power needed to make one gateway.
To conclude, I don't see why gateways should increase in predetermined jumps. Your gateway could be 6 feet tall one day, and 6 foot 6 inches tall the next day, if your strength increased by the same proportion overnight.